


Lost in the Woods

by PizzaSteve3902



Category: SCP Foundation, Zootopia (2016)
Genre: Being Lost, Camping, Ghosts, Halloween, Halloween Challenge, Post-Zootopia (2016)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-22
Updated: 2018-10-22
Packaged: 2019-07-20 08:06:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,210
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16133144
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PizzaSteve3902/pseuds/PizzaSteve3902
Summary: Nick and Judy go on a camping trip in the woods, but end up getting lost. To pass the time, Nick tells Judy one of the little-known urban legends of Zootopia. Unknown to them, they are being watched.





	Lost in the Woods

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the 2018 Zootopia Discord Halloween Writing/Art Contest.

The air was cool and clear—fall had arrived. Mammals all around the city of Zootopia were decorating their homes for the season. They were carving pumpkins, hanging fake skeletons of various species around, and making and buying costumes. But Nick didn’t want to stay in the city for this Halloween; he wanted something more fun.

“Hey, Carrots,” Nick said as the two were in the break room at the ZPD Precinct One.

“Yeah?” Judy replied, taking a bite of the carrot she had in her paw.

“Have you ever been camping?”

“Yeah, lots of times.”

“Want to go camping on Halloween?”

“Why?” Judy asked, puzzled.

“Because it’s fun, that’s why,” Nick said. “Think of it; you and me sitting beside a campfire, alone in the woods, sleeping out under the stars… it’ll be fun!”

“I can’t resist a good camping trip,” Judy said. “Sure I’ll go with you.”

“You won’t forget this trip, Carrots,” Nick said. “I promise.”

* * *

Nick carried the tent out of the back door of his apartment building and went to his car parked in the small parking lot behind the building. He opened the truck and put the tent in. He then put his backpack he was wearing in the trunk as well before slamming the trunk shut, as it wouldn’t close any other way.

He opened the driver door and slid into the seat. He pushed the clutch to the floor and turned the key. The 6.9 liter V8 Hemi engine roared to life, bringing a smirk to Nick’s muzzle.

Nick closed the driver door and released the parking brake before pushing the shifter to first. Slowly accelerating and releasing the clutch, the muscle car rolled out of the lot and onto the street.

As Nick drove towards Judy’s building, he noticed the fuel tank was low. He happened to be getting close to a gas station. He was about to pull in, but he realized he didn’t have any cash on paw.

“It can wait till after the trip,” Nick said to himself. “We won’t be going anywhere with the car, anyway.”

After a few more turns, Nick arrived in front of Judy’s building. Judy was waiting for him.

“Hey, Carrots,” Nick said, greeting her. “Toss your stuff in the trunk and hop in.”

“Sure thing,” Judy said as she went behind the car and opened the trunk. She put her tent and backpack in the compartment and slammed it shut, as Nick had told her before about the trunk’s problem. Judy hopped in the passenger seat and Nick sped off towards the woods outside Zootopia.

“So where are we going?” Judy asked.

“My favorite place to go camping. My dad used to take me every summer he could. He taught me many skills out there.”

“Cool,” Judy said.

* * *

An hour later, the two were driving down a narrow, winding road going into some desolate woods. After a while, Nick turned right onto a small dirt road.

“Are you sure this is the way?” Judy asked.

“Of course,” Nick replied. “I’ve been down this way a million and one times.”

They drove about a mile into the woods, before the car suddenly dropped down, and stopped moving.

“Oh no,” Nick said, getting out. He walked around the car, then got back in and turned the engine off.

“What is it?” Judy asked.

“Well, the left rear tire is stuck in the mud. Deep, sticky mud at that,” Nick said. “I can get it out, but I don’t have much gas in the tank, and we’ll have to get the campsite set up before dark.”

“So where are we going to set it up?” Judy asked, getting out of the car.

“There’s a good spot a short hike from here,” Nick said. “It’s just up that hill over there.”

“We better get moving, then,” Judy said, shouldering her backpack.

* * *

An hour later, the two were seated beside each other on a log, facing the campfire they had made. They had a blanket draped over their shoulders to keep warm from the chilly fall air.

The wind blew the treetops slowly, making the many dead leaves on them fall down. The sounds of the woods and the fire were soothing. Nick could tell Judy was getting really sleepy.

“Hey, Carrots,” Nick said, nudging Judy to make her more awake.

“What?” Judy asked, yawning. “I was almost asleep.”

Nick chuckled. “I know you were.” Nick reached down to his backpack that had been sitting at his feet. He reached into the open compartment and pulled out his flashlight. He confirmed it worked, and then set it beside him. “How about I tell you a story I was told as a child? I doubt you’ve heard of this one.”

“What’s it about?” Judy asked, shuffling on the log to get a more comfortable position.

“It’s a story about one of the residents of the neighborhood I grew up in,” Nick said, popping a marshmallow into his mouth. “Back in 1896, a little coyote kit was born in the neighborhood I grew up in. He was just an average kid, he worked as a newsboy in downtown to make some extra change for his dad, as his mom died soon after giving birth to him. When 1914 rolled around, The Great War was on everyone’s mind. The coyote decided to join the army.

“What was his name?” Judy asked.

“Nobody actually knows. I’ll get to why in a minute.

“Anyway, so he joins the army. He gets shipped off to the trenches of Furance. He didn’t talk much to his fellow soldiers, so nobody got to know him much more than his name, rank, species, and serial number.

“One day, The mammal in command of the section the coyote was in gave a command for a squad of soldiers, including the coyote to sneak into the enemy trench and kill as many machine gunners as possible. It was a stupid idea, and was an almost guaranteed suicide mission.

“So he and three other soldiers go with him, a fox, a leopard, and a wolf. By the way, the commander of the trench was a deer, and an avowed hater of preds, so that’s why he sent them. Anyway, they arrive, but there was nobody in the trenches. They searched up and down the trench, but there was no trace of anybody. The eventually found the barracks. The leopard went in first. He came back out as fast as he could, fear filling his face. There were all the dead bodies of the Germammal soldiers, rotting for days.”

Judy’s face was filled with fear by this point. “Wh—what happened to them?” she asked, shaking with fear.

“I’ll get there,” Nick said. “The coyote told the others to go back to command, and he’d stay there. The fox insisted he stay with him. Reluctantly, the coyote agreed. Now, the coyote was a little messed up in the head, so he went into the barracks with the dead bodies and lit a cigar. The fox insisted he get out of there, but the coyote was determined to sit where he was until the others got back. The fox was uncomfortable in the barracks, so he stepped outside.

“The coyote got up and walked around the room, rolling over some of the bodies—you don’t want to know what they looked like—and he took a few trinkets and other objects. As he was walking deeper and deeper into the room, it was getting really dark, so he broke a leg of one of the beds, wrapped a sleeve from one of the dead mammals’ uniforms on the end, and lit it to make a torch. He noticed the deeper he went, there was more and more of a black ooze that resembled raw oil. He came up to the back wall, which was covered completely in the black ooze. He felt around the wall, but suddenly, the floor crumbled beneath him, and he was sucked into the ooze. It was much thicker than oil, but it wasn’t deep, so he could stand up and it only went up to his stomach. But, he wasn’t able to get out without help, so he called out for the fox to come help him out. When the fox finally arrived and helped him out, he was covered from head to toe in the ooze. He went limp with a huge, menacing smile on his face.

“They shipped him off to Purris to a military hospital where he was treated for mental insanity. But soon, documents of his stay started to vanish. And pretty soon, he vanished too, and nobody knew where he went, or even if he existed.”

“Is that the end?” Judy asked.

“For the most part,” Nick said, popping another marshmallow into his mouth. “Legend has it he made it back to Zootopia and lives out in these woods now. Some people say some foundation captured him and have him locked up in some secret facility.”

“Why?” Judy asked, bewildered at why they’d do that.

“Yet more people say he gained some anomalous abilities from the ooze. One of which is to teleport into a pocket dimension and phasing through walls. They also say he prefers to attack mammals between the ages of 10 to 25, but who knows?”

“That sounds horrible,” Judy said. “You do know I’m 26, right?”

“Yeah, so?” Nick said.

“If he were to attack, he would rather kill me than you.”

“Carrots?” Nick said, nudging Judy. “You aren’t scared he’s real, do you? It’s only an urban legend. There’s no truth to that.”

“Every legend has some measure of truth to it.”

“Sure, maybe the coyote existed back in the early 1900s, but he’d be well over 100 years old by now. And I doubt those ‘powers’ of his are even real. I say he died in Purris, they lost his documents, and forgot about him. There were millions of mammals who died in World War I, you know.”

“What was that?” Judy asked, shushing Nick.

“Oh come on, Carrots!” Nick said. “You’re overreacting. It was only a—” Suddenly, there was a sound that Nick could hear.

“There’s someone here,” Judy whispered.

“Yeah, I hear it, too,” Nick whispered back as he looked around. “I left my pistol in the car.”

“Should we chance it and go for it?” Judy asked.

“Better be safe than sorry,” Nick said.

Judy grabbed a stick and held it like a baseball bat, ready to hit anyone with it as the two made their way towards Nick’s car, still stuck in the mud. They made it without incident, and Nick opened the driver’s door and got his pistol out of the center console, and made sure there was ammo.

“Alright, Judy,” Nick said, closing the door as he turned to face her. “I have _a_ full magazine. No more.”

Suddenly, Judy screamed and chucked the stick over Nick’s head.

Nick spun around to see what Judy was afraid of. What he saw the most hideous thing he had ever seen. It was a coyote that looked like it had been rotting for years and was covered in a black ooze. He was standing across from Nick on the other side of the car.

“What the hell?!” Nick exclaimed as he pointed his gun at it. “Identify yourself!”

The coyote said nothing as he put his hand on the roof of the car. Where he touched began to rust instantly.

“Identify!” Nick commanded again.

He didn’t respond again. This time he walked forward—through the car, leaving wherever he touched covered in rust and ooze.

Nick fired four shots at his face and chest, but nothing happened.

“Run, Judy! RUN!” Nick shouted as they turned and ran back up the hill.

“What the hell is that!?” Judy asked as they ran.

“I have no idea!” Nick replied. “Whatever it is, I think we lost it.”

They stopped and looked behind them and saw no sign of the coyote.

“I think we’re in the clear,” Judy said as she turned around before screaming yet again as the coyote was right behind her.

The coyote grabbed Judy by the shoulders and slammed her to the ground. Nick fired the last five rounds of his gun at him, but again they did nothing. Nick attempted to tackle the coyote, but he phased through him, and was then covered with the ooze. The ooze burned his flesh, and Nick collapsed in agony as he watched the coyote cut open Judy’s chest, but didn’t kill her.

After severely wounding Judy, the coyote picked her up and sank into the ground, taking Judy with him.

“No...” Nick said weakly as he breathed his last.

* * *

_Begin Log:_

_SCP-106 was spotted in the Zootopia National Forest around 0100 last night. MTF Omega-9 was dispatched to recapture the anomaly. The bodies of ZPD officers Nicolas P. Wilde and Judith L. Hopps were recovered from the scene._

_The bodies are being taken to Site-19 for further study. All record of these two are to be purged and destroyed. As far as the public needs to know now is that Nicolas Wilde and Judith Hopps never existed._

_Signed,_

_O-3, O-5 Command_


End file.
